Running Backs on Scoring Drives

Mavric

Mavric

Yoda
Staff member
Watching some of Washington's runs has me really excited for what he'll do the next few years.  He's had most of the bigger plays turned in by our RBs this year.  

That got me wondering - is there a correlation between possessions that we've scored on and which RB was getting the touches that drive.  

Frost generally plays on RB for the entire possession - or at least has so far this year.  There have been a few times when it changes mid-drive for one reason or another but not all that often.  

So I went through our scoring drives through two games and categorized them by which RB(s) got a touch on that possession.  Here's what I found:

Colorado

1st Quarter - 8 plays, 75 yards, TD - Washington 3 runs for 14 yards; Oz 1 run for 7 yards

2nd Quarter - 7 plays, 52 yards, TD - Oz 5 rushes, 26 yards, TD

2nd Quarter - 8 plays, 79 yards, TD - Bell 1 run for 45 yards; Oz 4 touches for 13 yards

3rd Quarter - 6 plays, 80 yards, TD - Oz 2 touches for 17 yards

Troy

2nd Quarter - 5 plays, 65 yards, TD - Washington 3 touches for 23 yards

3rd Quarter - 3 plays, 2 yards, FG - Oz 2 rushes, 2 yards

3rd Quarter - 10 plays, 48 yards, FG - Washington 6 touches, 37 yards

4th Quarter - 11 plays, 75 yards, TD - Washington 4 touches, 22 yards; Oz 3 touches, 16 yards

Observations:

  • Bell has only touched the ball on one scoring drive - when he had the 45 yard run; interesting since he's had the most carries so far this year.
  • We've only had that one drive where a big play from a RB led to a score - probably part of the offensive issues so far
  • Oz was in for all four scoring drives against Colorado, even though he had a modest 5.2 yards per touch
  • The first FG against Troy shouldn't really count since we only got two yards on the "drive"
  • Washington carried the bulk of the load on the other scoring drives against Troy, 6.3  yards per touch on those drives



Pretty small sample size and nothing really conclusive but it might be interesting to watch going forward.

 
Mavric said:
Watching some of Washington's runs has me really excited for what he'll do the next few years.  He's had most of the bigger plays turned in by our RBs this year.  

That got me wondering - is there a correlation between possessions that we've scored on and which RB was getting the touches that drive.  

Frost generally plays on RB for the entire possession - or at least has so far this year.  There have been a few times when it changes mid-drive for one reason or another but not all that often.  

So I went through our scoring drives through two games and categorized them by which RB(s) got a touch on that possession.  Here's what I found:

Colorado

1st Quarter - 8 plays, 75 yards, TD - Washington 3 runs for 14 yards; Oz 1 run for 7 yards

2nd Quarter - 7 plays, 52 yards, TD - Oz 5 rushes, 26 yards, TD

2nd Quarter - 8 plays, 79 yards, TD - Bell 1 run for 45 yards; Oz 4 touches for 13 yards

3rd Quarter - 6 plays, 80 yards, TD - Oz 2 touches for 17 yards

Troy

2nd Quarter - 5 plays, 65 yards, TD - Washington 3 touches for 23 yards

3rd Quarter - 3 plays, 2 yards, FG - Oz 2 rushes, 2 yards

3rd Quarter - 10 plays, 48 yards, FG - Washington 6 touches, 37 yards

4th Quarter - 11 plays, 75 yards, TD - Washington 4 touches, 22 yards; Oz 3 touches, 16 yards

Observations:

  • Bell has only touched the ball on one scoring drive - when he had the 45 yard run; interesting since he's had the most carries so far this year.
  • We've only had that one drive where a big play from a RB led to a score - probably part of the offensive issues so far
  • Oz was in for all four scoring drives against Colorado, even though he had a modest 5.2 yards per touch
  • The first FG against Troy shouldn't really count since we only got two yards on the "drive"
  • Washington carried the bulk of the load on the other scoring drives against Troy, 6.3  yards per touch on those drives



Pretty small sample size and nothing really conclusive but it might be interesting to watch going forward.
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Not poking or prying.

Do you like Bell at the spot? Where do you rate him right now?

Me personally, I like a lot that I’ve seen from him and put him right below Washington and like seeing him get carries.

 
ScottyIce said:
Not poking or prying.

Do you like Bell at the spot? Where do you rate him right now?

Me personally, I like a lot that I’ve seen from him and put him right below Washington and like seeing him get carries.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I was going to add an addendum after I watched the first part of the Troy game.  Bell was looking REALLY good early in that game.  He was the workhorse on a good drive early where we moved the ball well but then missed the FG.  So he should probably get some credit for that.  We probably should have gone for it on 4th & 1 anyway, then we got the penalty then missed the FG.  I was also going to go back and look at the drive against Colorado where we missed the FG and give guys credit for that drive as well.

 
I thought it was a mistake to take Washington out late in the game after we had scored the TD in the 4th quarter.

 
Washington, IMHO, is the most electric back right now.  However, he needs to tuck that ball in.  It scares me every time he runs with the ball out there like a loaf of wonder bread.  Really haven't seen as many RB screens, sweeps etc as I thought we would.  It also is slightly skewed from the Troy game. It seems like Bell was constantly running into the Troy DL with those straight ahead off tackle runs..Some of the plays called were head scratchers.

 
ScottyIce said:
@Mavric so you think ahead of ozigbo or behind?
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Ahead.  I'd still go with Bell as the starter just because I thing the rest of his game is probably ahead of Washington.  But I think it's only a matter of time before Washington runs away with it (bad pun intended).  Maybe not this year but next year.

Not gonna lie, Ozigbo has been better than I expected.  Not on the same level with Bell and Washington but a definite improvement from what we saw last year.  I mean ... his long run for the year is 11 yards but he's done a better job getting 5-6 yards when I think last year he prbobaly only gets 1-2.  But I still think as conference season rolls around and Washington gets more up to speed, we'll see more Bell/Washington and less Ozigbo.  Oz got a decent amount of carries against Colorado but he was still the third guy they put in - despite being listed as a co-#1.  Several of his carries were in the spots where the coaches said they were going to use him - short yardage and in the 4-minute offense were we were trying to burn the clock.  There's nothing wrong with that role but I think it will be limited as we go on.  We already saw Oz's role diminish against Troy.

Curious if Miles Jones is going to get a shot or he's just too far behind now.  He's been battling injuries regularly since he got here so perhaps they'll basically stick with these three for now.

 
GSG said:
This thread is just Mav trying to find a way to blame our 0-2 start on Ozigbo :P  
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Ha!  That would be handy.

I was curious if the bigger-play ability from Bell and Washington had showed up on the scoring drives but Oz definitely contributed against Colorado.  Not so much against Troy but I'm honestly not going to take much from that game because I think we were only running a shell of our offense.

 
Some interesting stas via Pro Football Focus about Washington:

5 of his 22 runs have gone for 10+ yards

56 of his 126 yards have come after contact

On those 22 runs, he's made 11 guys miss in space

"Special" is apt

 
For comparison:

Bell has 4 runs of 10+ yards; Oz has 1

Bell has made 4 guys miss, Oz 3

Bell does have 122 yards after contact - out of 160 - which is impressive.  Don't know what Oz's numbers are on that.

 
Dang.  The possession after they muffed the punt is REALLY disappointing.  We obviously didn't trust Bunch to do anything.  On both 1st and 2nd down we ran a heavy formation with Oz and two TEs.  But all that did was let them put 9 guys in the box.  No one really missed any blocks but there is just nowhere to go when you run straight ahead against that.  

I suppose we had Oz in there to try to power it into the end zone.  Oz does a nice job of bouncing the first down play but he's just not fast enough.  Washington walks into the end zone on that play.  Bell probably scores as well.

 
Did Wilbon quit the team? Where is he?

Nevermind, saw the thread on it.

 
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